T-burg camp becomes Certified Wildlife Habitat

Out in the woods on Perry City Road, tucked between farms and hidden from passing cars, is a secret getaway. Trails through tall trees lead to small clearings with tents attached to trunks, suspended in the air like hammocks. A creek meanders nearby, and a small pond is home to frogs and turtles. This is Camp SkyTent, and it recently became a Certified Wildlife Habitat.

Lex Santi and his partner, Shona Craig, own Camp SkyTent, a group of small campsites on their property in Trumansburg. According to Santi, a previous owner left the remains of two planned forests on the property: a Christmas tree farm and a forest of jack pines that were used for telephone poles. Many of the trees reach 30 feet, and they’re perfect for hanging tents between. This year, they set their first tent up in April.

“We weren’t sure at the beginning of the summer season with COVID happening if people were going to show up, so we just put it online on Airbnb,” Craig said. “And it was amazing how quickly people started booking. Especially during these times, people just want to get out in nature and camp.”

Santi, a mental health therapist, has lived at the 6-acre property for five years and first started renting out rooms in his home for extra money three years ago. When he posted a photo to social media of a hanging tent attached to trees, friends suggested he rent that spot out too. There are now seven tents on the property.

The unique campsites have proven to be a great thing to have in a pandemic. While it’s rustic — there’s no shower, and guests must use a port-a-potty and get water from an outdoor hose — Santi said they’ve had about 200 bookings this summer, booking up fully on weekends and some weekdays.

He said it’s a favorite spot for couples’ getaways, and they’ve even had one proposal on site so far. Cleaning has been amped up in compliance with health and safety rules during COVID, and Craig said she wears a mask and gloves to bleach and sanitize tents between uses. Port-a-potties are wiped down each day between their weekly professional cleanings.

“The tents are quite secluded; I think people feel safe doing that right now,” Santi said. “It gets quite busy over the weekends. It’s just a really cool, fun vibe. The tents are priced to be approachable at $50 to $75, and everybody gets their own site to have a fire, cook s’mores, listen to music and dance. It’s quite a magical place when you walk about at night.”

Most of the tents are at chest height and have a zipper opening for campers to enter through from the bottom. These tents are relatively easy to get into and may only require a boost from a step stool or nearby log.

“Once you get your head in there, you put your arms in and then push it down,” Craig said. “It goes down quite a ways. And then, you can just hop your hips up into it.”

Their highest tent, the Tree Topper, is attached to the trees 10 feet above the ground and is a bit more challenging to maneuver. Guests must first hop into a hammock set up underneath the tent and from there climb a ladder attached to the tent and enter through the bottom.

The ratchets that attach to the trees are industrial strength and can hold about 800 pounds, allowing up to three people to safely be in one tent at a time. Each tent has a window for taking in the views, and the Star Gazer tent opens up on top to see the whole sky.

Campers say they love the unique sleeping experience, especially not having to deal with the usual aches and pains associated with sleeping on the ground. Campers Brea Wheeler and Kollin Diedrickson recently stayed in Willow, one of the lower tents.

“It was really comfortable,” Wheeler said. “My back felt great the next morning. The tent shapes to your body a little bit while you’re sleeping. It’s almost like a sense of safety because you’re not on the ground with bugs and animals.”

The couple was visiting from Westchester and Syracuse and went blueberry picking, hiking and swimming. They also enjoyed the wildlife on the property.

“There was one morning where Brea and I woke up and there was a deer grazing outside the tent, eating apples in the field,” Diedrickson said. “Every morning around 6:30 a.m., we’d get the nice little wake-up call from all the beautiful birds. They had a few bright red cardinals and a good amount of monarch butterflies.”

Last month, the property at Camp SkyTent was deemed a Certified Wildlife Habitat through the the National Wildlife Federation’s (NFW) “Garden for Wildlife” program. This means the property provides natural sources of food, water, cover and places to raise young and is maintained in a sustainable way that incorporates native plants, conserves water and doesn’t rely on pesticides.

According to NWF, there are more than 2,000 Certified Wildlife Habitat gardens across the United States. The owners said they’ve always been committed to sustainability and nature preservation and didn’t have to change much about the property to get the certification.

“It just fits into what we’re already about,” Craig said. “We really make an effort to tell people not to bring their own wood from other places because of the invasive species risks. We give every booking one free bundle of wood from our stash. It’s nice to have the certification to show people that they’re coming to a place where we really do care about the environment, and we really want to share the beauty and the nature that we have here.”

Among the tents are foxes, raccoons, skunks, wild turkeys, pheasants, frogs, rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, deer, birds and lots of fireflies. The couple also tends to fruit trees and an organic veggie, flower and herb garden.

“It’s an extra marker to show that this is not just any place; this is a sanctuary,” Santi said of the certification sign they placed on their land. “This is a place to go and feel calm and centered. This is not just some dude’s back yard.”

The couple, both yoga instructors, is attempting to make the land just as peaceful for humans as it is for animals by now offering yoga classes for guests. Wheeler said she took a class during her recent visit, and it turned out to be her favorite part of the trip.

“Shona and Lex set it up where they were up on the porch,” Wheeler said. “Everyone had their own yoga mat, and they made sure we were all 6 feet apart. We were all in a row where we could see Shona doing more advanced movements, and Lex was breaking it down for the beginners.”

Camp SkyTent is still in its infancy, but the uptick in activity this year has the owners planning for the future. Though there probably won’t be more tents, there are lots of ideas in the works for more classes, a shower, a cabin and possibly coffee and tea services. The couple said they love creating experiences and introducing people to the beauty that is the Finger Lakes.

“We want it to be a healing place, so we’ll add on things that contribute and connect to that,” Craig said. “We had all those woods back there, and it was really beautiful, but it’s so much more meaningful now that we can share it.”